Otto btisser



(No Model.)

0. BUSSER. MEANS FOR PROPELLING BOATS BY ELECTRICITY. No. 464,955.-Patented Dec. 15,1891.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OTTO BUSSER, OF ODERBERG, NEAR BERLIN, GERMANY.

MEANS FOR PROPELLING BOATS BY ELECTRICITY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 464,955, dated December15, 1891.

application filed February 10, 1891. Serial No. 380,944. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OTTO Biissnn, civil engiueer, a subject of the Kingof Prussia and German Emperor, residing at ()derberg, near Berlin, inthe Kingdom of Prussia and German Empire, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Means and Apparatus for Propelling Boats andRafts on Vater- Ways by Means of Electrical Energy; and I do herebydeclare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to devices for propelling canal-boats byelectricity; and it consists in the novel construction and combinationof the parts hereinafter fully described and claimed.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows a side elevation,and Fig. 2 a plan. The apparatus is mounted upon a bed plate or frame a;

It consists, first, of devices for the installation of the apparatus onthe boat, and, secondly, of the motor.

The base-plate rests by means of bearers d of circular section uponcollars e, fixed on clamps Z), which can be adjusted in position uponthe gunwales of the boat on which they are fixed by set-screws.

For the installation of the apparatus regard must be had to thecurvature of the gunwale and to the distance apart of the two sides ofthe boat. The supportingcollars 8 can turn freely around a short pivotfixed vertically upon the middle of the top plate of the clamp; also,the circular bearers 61 move freely within the collars e, so that it ispossible to regulate the positions of the clamps according to thevarying curvatures of the gunwales. The bearer near the stern of theboat consists of two tubes fitted one within the other, while of the tworear bearers the lefthand one consists of a single tube and theright-hand one is a solid bar fixed to the baseplate a. The tubularbearers are carried in tubular sockets 0, formed on the base-plate. Thebearers can be slid longitudinally in their supports, and consequentlythey can be extended or shortened, according as the distance between thesides of the boat may require.

The electric motor f is mounted on the baseplate. Its armature axistransmits its motion by a wormto the worm-wheel g, which is fixed,together with the pulley or wheel h of the cable, upon a shaft in. Thebefore-mentioned traction cable or chain passes around the pulley h, andin order to guide it securely onto the pulley at the entering side thereare provided three rollers m. For guiding it at 6c the leaving side asingle roller n is employed. Lastly, there is provided on the right-handgunwale of the boat a small post, which carries at its upper end anarrangement for fixing the cord from the contact-truck and for 65supporting the branch conducting-wire. The latter descends directly fromthe top of the post to the electric motor. This is of any suitable knownconstruction. It is provided with a commutator, by means of which thecurrent can be sent through the armaturecoils in any desired directionor be cut off therefrom. The contact-truck 3 runs upon the line-wire 4Eand is movedalong by the cord 5,

so that the current is conducted to the motor f through the branch Wire6. The cable-wheel h engages with the cable 7, which lies in thewater-way 8 below the boat, which is indicated by the dotted lines inthe drawings. The current is supplied to the motor through the line andbranch wires, and the boat is propelled by the cable-wheel, whichrevolves in contact with the cable.

W hat I claim is 1. The combination, with a water-way, a continuouscable in the water-way, and an insulated line-wire, of an electricmotor, a cable-wheel, a worm, and a worm-wheel operatively connectingthe said motor with the cable-wheel, and a supporting base plate adaptedto be clamped to a boat, and a branch wire and traveling contact-trolleyfor conducting the current from the line-wire to the motor,substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, with the motor, the cable-wheel, and theintermediate driving mechanism, of the supporting base-plate, the clampsadapted to be secured to the sides of the boat, and thelaterally-extensible bearers connected to the base-plate and pivoted inthe said clamps, substantially as set forth.

The combination, with the base-plate for supporting the motor and thecable-Wheel and In testimony whereof I affix my signature in providedwith the sockets a", of the clamps presence of two Witnesses. adapted tobe secured to the sides of the boat and the extensible tubular bearersd, sliding OTTO BUSbER' in the said sockets and having their ends piv-\Vitnesses:

oted in the said clamps, substantially as set MARC M. RATTEN,

forth.

SIEGFRIED HAMBURGER.

